In business, there’s nothing better than a colleague you can count on. Unless, of course, that colleague greets you with a six-pack of homebrew every time he comes by the office. Well, today was such a day and the delivery consisted of two Harvest Ales, a pumpkin ale and a pair of oatmeal stouts. I figured, as a pitifully small payment, the least I could do was to review these fine brews. So, after enjoying a harvest ale with my chicken caesar, I was ready for dessert: the oatmeal stout.
The stout poured a typical black, the billowy head was dense, not the typical homebrew-thin of so many dark beers gone bad. The head was a light tan, and dwindled a bit as it waited patiently for me to sample. The scent was sweet, almost a milk stout-like, but not unpleasant. Hints of root beer and carmel, malt, earth and chocolate blended together to form a wonderful aroma. The body was good, not quite Guinness, but smooth enough to be easy, yet thick enough to sip with care. There was a cloying in the end, almost a tannin-type dryness on my tongue, which called me back to quench it, sip after sip. For a beer off the shelf, this brew was good. For a homebrewer’s batch, this was an incredibly well-built beer, lacking the all-too-common funkiness or misplaced flavors. A great blend of ingredients to form a very nice brew. Well done…now keep those sixers coming!
ABV: ?
Grade: B+
I like to modify my brews and this one was no extiecpon. I was going for a mocha stout. I added 1/2c molasses 1/2c brown sugar, and 3tbls of dutch process baking cocao. Then at the bottling stage added and ounce and a half of espresso to each bottle. The chocolate flavor is pretty subtle, and the coffee flavor is mostly aroma. I definitely plan to brew this one again with a few modifications. Please note that I fermented for 3 weeks, warm conditioned for 2, and cold conditioned for 1. The flavors mellow out with extra conditioning time. I may have to brew this one as is to find out what mr beer intended it to taste like. Keep in mind whenever you add more fermentable sugars it increases your fermenting time. There are far too many people that rush their beer making resulting in less than satisfying results. I personally have 2 batches going at all times, and may end up doing 3.